Remarks on Arrival at Teterboro, New Jersey

Senator Case, Governor Cahill, Members of the Congress, all of the distinguished guests on the platform, and my friends here in New Jersey:

It is a very great privilege for me to return to New Jersey, and I want to say first of all--¹

I think that clearly shows that the silent majority is not going to be silent any longer.

I am glad to return to New Jersey because I well recall that in this century no one has been elected President of the United States unless he carried the State of New Jersey, and in 1968 I am proud to have carried the State of New Jersey.

I am also proud to appear here with Bill Cahill, a man who has returned the statehouse in New Jersey to that high class of leadership which Republican Governors have given. Now how about a hand for Bill Cahill, your great Republican Governor?

And since we are speaking of winners, can I say that I am very proud today that we have the Hasbrouck Heights Band. I understand they haven't lost a game in 2 years. Good luck.

Ladies and gentlemen, in this State of New Jersey in this year 1970, you will make a decision that is going to affect the State of New Jersey. It is going to affect your lives, and it is going to affect the United States of America for many years to come.

I want to tell you what that decision means. I could simply speak in terms of the candidates that I am proud to support. I believe we have the best group of House candidates in the State of New Jersey that I have ever seen in campaigning this State for many years. I want to give a hand to every one of these House candidates: those that are in and those who are seeking in.

Second, I'm here to speak in behalf of my friend Nelson Gross, a man---¹

Thank you, very much. I am very proud to be here to. speak in behalf of Nelson Gross for personal reasons. He was my chairman in 1968. He is a man I deeply respect. He is a member of my party. But, my friends, I want to say to you today that the issue in this election is much bigger than whether I happen to like this man personally, as I do.

It's much bigger than whether he happens to be a member of my party, which he is. He stands for what is best for America. That is why we are for Nelson Gross today.

And there is a very clear issue, a clear issue between him and those who oppose him. Let me put it to you in the terms that every citizen of the State of New Jersey, young and old, is interested in.

What do you want from your Government? We begin, of course, with that item which is more important than anything else in the minds of all of us. We want to build a world in which we can have peace--peace not just for the next election but peace for the next generation. Nelson Gross stands for that.

Since I have been in office, after 5 years of men going to Vietnam, we have been bringing them home, and we will continue to bring them home. After 5 years of American casualties going up and up, they've gone down and down to the lowest in 4 1/2 years, and they will continue to go down.

After 5 years of the war going on, the war is coming to an end, and you can be sure that we shall move in that direction.

So what we stand for here is a program of a just peace. We have offered a cease-fire. We have offered an exchange of prisoners. We have offered a peace conference. We have offered a political settlement. My friends, let me tell you why we need a just peace. It is very easy, I know, as some of those who may be here in this audience today have been shouting, to simply end the war. My friends, we have ended wars. What we want to do is to end this war so that young Americans won't have to fight in another war. That is the kind of program that we are for. That is why we are ending this war in a way that will discourage those who might start another war.

We are ending this war in a way that we have a chance for peace in the Pacific in the years to come, and we are maintaining the strength so that we can negotiate that reduction in nuclear arms so essential to lasting peace.

Let me put the issue to you very directly. The United States Senate is the body that has the most effect on the foreign policy of this country. We need in the Senate a man who will stand with the President on the great issue of ending the war and building a just peace.

Let me turn to an issue very close at home. I see many here that probably took off from their shopping in order to be here. I know that as you go to the stores today you are going to be concerned with the fact that the prices are going up and up. Let me say that when we came into office, we found that we had the worst inflation since World War II. And the reason was that we had had a government in Washington, D.C. that, over the past 8 years before then, had spent $50 billion more than the economy of this country at full production would have produced through its tax system. And when a government does that, it means that spending more in Washington means higher prices here at home.

Let me say this to you: We need in Washington a man like Nelson Gross who will support the President on this fundamental issue, and it is a very tempting issue for a political man. It is very easy to vote for every spending program. But we need a man who has the courage to vote against the program that might benefit some people but would raise prices and taxes for all people. That is the kind of a man that we have in Nelson Gross.

And, my friends, we need to reform the institutions of government in this country. We need to quit putting good money into bad programs in America.

Let's look at our welfare program. The welfare costs in New Jersey go up and up and up by the millions of dollars. That is true all over the country. Hundreds of thousands more people go on welfare.

Let me say to you, when I find a program which makes it more advantageous for a man not to work than to work then it is time to junk that program and get something new.

When I find a program that will encourage a man to desert his family rather than stay with his family, it is time to get rid of that program and get another one.

That is why this administration, over a year ago, submitted to the Congress of the United States a new program that would take care of everybody who needs it, and everybody who is unable to work, but which would say that a man would have an incentive to work, would be required to work, and if he is able to work and is offered a job and then won't work then he doesn't get any welfare. That is the kind of a program that Nelson Gross suggests.

We need programs, my friends. You know about what is happening to your local taxes, any of you that are homeowners, how they go up and up and up. You know here in the State of New Jersey how Bill Cahill has had to fight the problems of his budget because the funds that are needed to run State government seem always to get smaller and smaller, and the problems get bigger and bigger. That is why this administration has offered a revolutionary new program in which the Federal Government will share its tax revenues with the States.

And you know another thing that that does? It means that for 190 years we have seen power in this country flowing from the people and from the States up to Washington, D.C. I don't think that is fight. I think the power belongs to the people, and I think it is time that we have a program in which power will flow from Washington back to the States and back to the people of New Jersey and the people of America.

Now, my friends, there is another place where we need Nelson Gross--in the Senate. Not only will he support the President on this great issue of bringing a just peace in the world, of reforming the institutions of Government, of reducing that kind of spending that would lead to higher prices and taxes. But, my friends, Nelson Gross is a man who knows law enforcement, and he is a man that will stand firmly for the legislation that this President has asked for and that has been delayed and, in many times, not passed that would wage a winning war against crime in this country. It is time that we wage that war, and Nelson Gross will help us win that war.

It took the Congress almost a year and a half to pass the organized crime bill. The bill which would stop the obscenity and the pornography from going into the homes of Americans still languishes in the Senate. It is time to get that bill out of the Congress of the United States and enacted into law.

And also we have in Nelson Gross a man who is not just for law enforcement during an election campaign, but who stands for it all year round. That is the kind of man that we want in the United States Senate.

I turn now to a problem that concerns many Americans. We see here a number of television cameras. We appreciate their covering this rally. On the television tonight I will predict that what you are likely to see is not this great crowd. You are likely to see a few demonstrators here, or in Vermont where there were a few hundred, and thousands who did not demonstrate. I do not say that critically of television because, you see, that small minority with their obscene language, throwing their rocks, engaging in violence, they come across the television screen and many, I think, it seems to me, without justification, have gotten the impression that that small minority is a majority of Americans. My friends, they are not a majority, and I want to tell you what you can do about it.

Some have asked me, "What do we do about those that shout obscene slogans? What do we do about those that throw rocks?" My answer is, "Don't answer in kind. You don't have to shout obscenities back to them. You do not have to engage in violence. You do not have to throw rocks. It is time for the great majority to stand up and be counted and to be heard."

I could tell you how you can be heard: You can be heard in a quiet way but with the most powerful voice that democracy has ever created. On November 3d, you walk into that polling booth and you vote, and one vote is worth a hundred obscene slogans.

Vote for Nelson Gross.